The world’s top 10 pure-play foundry operators saw sales hit a new quarterly high in the fourth quarter of last year, for the 10th consecutive quarter, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) retaining its position as the world’s largest contract chipmaker, according to Taipei-based market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp.
In a research report, TrendForce said the 10 largest contract chipmakers in the world generated US$29.55 billion in sales in the October-December period, up 8.3 percent from a quarter earlier, accounting for 98 percent of the global total.
TSMC posted US$15.75 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, up 5.8 percent from a quarter earlier and accounting for 52.1 percent of the global total, TrendForce’s data showed.
TrendForce said TSMC benefited from the debut of the iPhone 13 series, which went on global sale in September and boosted the shipment of chips made using its advanced 5 nanometer process in the fourth quarter. However, that growth was offset by the fact that shipments of chips made using the company’s 7nm and 6nm processes were impacted by a weaker Chinese smartphone market.
Nevertheless, TSMC continued to command more than 50 percent of the global market, leaving its rivals at home and abroad far behind, TrendForce said.
Other top chipmakers
Among the world’s top 10, Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) took third spot after generating US$2.12 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, up 5.8 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 7.0 percent of the global market.
Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (PSMC) and Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation (VIS) from Taiwan took seventh and eighth places with US$619 million and US$458 million in sales, respectively, or a 2.0 percent and a 1.5 percent share of the world market.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Corp. came second after posting US$5.54 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, up 15.3 percent from a quarter earlier. Samsung accounted for 18.3 percent of total global sales.
As Samsung is one of the few contract chipmakers with its own 7nm process, and production based on its 5nm and 4nm processes is on the rise, the South Korean supplier saw its fourth quarter sales rise at double digit pace, TrendForce said.
Samsung’s sales were also pushed up by smartphone IC designer Qualcomm Inc., whose chips used in flagship smartphone models entered commercial production.
U.S.-based GlobalFoundries Inc. posted US$1.85 billion in sales in the fourth quarter to take the No. 4 place or a 6.1 percent share, ahead of China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (No. 5, US$1.58 billion in sales), Shanghai-based HuaHong Group (No.6, US$864 million), Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (No. 9, US$412 million), and South Korea’s Nextchip Corp. (No. 10, US$352 million).
Looking ahead, TrendForce said, the top 10 contract chipmakers are expected to enjoy sales growth in the first quarter of this year largely on the back of an increase in average sales prices.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel